A Fork in the Road to Replication

Being able to replicate a scientific discovery is one of the mainstays of the scientific method. Difficulty in replicating the Fleischmann and Pons experiment in 1989 has given rise to the widely held myth that cold fusion in fact has never been replicated. Of course this is not true. The number of documented replications runs in the thousands. Yet, even a number in the 1000s is small in the grand scheme of things. The reasons for this are myriad, including the lack of a clear theoretical understanding of the phenomenon, poor funding, the complicated nature of the calorimetry setup, etc. Aside from those things, there is often the desire to keep important parts of replication process out of the public domain because of lack of patent protection. Because cold fusion has been forced to fly commercial because of a lack of access to funding and support through traditional scientific channels, the technology is being developed under a different model than most scientific discoveries of this significance. Cold fusion is now being developed like a business, including reluctance to share information to potential competitors and closely guarded trade secrets and, concomitantly, absolutely no obligation to the public at large to share findings or methods.

However, things have begun to change in this regard with the emergence of Francesco Celani’s cold fusion wires, and the continuing development of the Athanor/Hydrobetatron of Ugo Abundo and his students and colleagues at the Pirelli High School in Rome. Although these cells may never prove to be commercially viable, both may provide a replication pathway that serves to provide answers as to how and why, and subsequently disseminate that knowledge widely. When this happens, widespread replication can truly begin.

The recent 8-page article in Popular Science may serve to plant the seed of interest in the general public. While the article did not endorse the technology per se, it did lend it a sense of credibility that has been sorely lacking for 2 decades. Popular Science has been a publication read by the educated layman since its inception in 1873. The importance of establishing some degree of credibility with that demographic cannot be understated. It was this demographic that brought us the personal computer. It was after reading an article in a similar publication, Popular Electronics, in 1975 about the Altair 8800, that set Bill Gates out to start a company that would eventually become Microsoft. In addition, the co-founders of both Microsoft and Apple (Gates/Allen & Job/Wozniak) were members of Homebrew Computer Clubs, which were bands of computer hobbyists and enthusiasts who met regularly to exchange information, parts and ideas. In essence, Homebrew Clubs were an early form of crowdsourcing, wherein small groups of technically savvy people worked independently, but in a collaborative fashion, to solve problems and overcome technical difficulties as related to early manifestations of the PC.

Altair 8800

With the recent release of the “The Believers” and several balanced articles in mainstream magazines including Popular Science (Scientific American notwithstanding), the seeds of credible interest are being sewn to a wider audience. As more people become aware that there is something to cold fusion, interest will surely grow and the desire to replicate will surely follow. We saw a wave of replication efforts of the e-Cat last year as word of Rossi spread across the web. However, these efforts were mostly shots in the dark because Rossi provided so few details. The next wave of replication attempts will be among people with much more information, as both Abundo and Celani have made a concerted effort to provide a great deal of detail with the precise goal of enabling widespread replication.

The Martin Fleishmann Memorial Project is currently sponsoring three groups attempting to replicate the Celani cell. The slide show below outlines the rationale and plan for sponsoring replications.

The three groups enlisted in this replication effort so far are working separately but will be collaborating, sharing information and discussing technical issues. These are the seeds of cold fusion crowdsourcing. In the video below, a member of the EU replication team receives a shipment prepared by another team, the Hunt Utilities Group. The shipment includes all the necessary equipment to set up a replication, including the cell itself and a PC with custom software to monitor experimental results. Per the video description:

“This is a trial run for when we are ready to ship second generation reactors around the globe in the event of successful internal Celani replications”.

As you watch Matthew of the EU team unbox the cold fusion kit from HUG, he looks like a youngster at Christmas opening up one of his presents. Now imagine, if you will, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others being able to purchase a similar setup for their own replication attempts. Per quantumheat.org:

“We will be setting up a Crowd-sourcing initiative soon. It will be listed right here and elsewhere when we do. The idea of a global, grass roots effort overcoming the institutional biases and bringing this to the attention of mainstream science and industry is so cool. Of course, a visionary philanthropist who recognizes the potential of this and funds the whole historic initiative also makes a good story.”

One of the groups involved in this replication attempt is, as mentioned, the Hunt Utilities Group of Pine River, MN. This group is dedicated to fostering sustainable living, and has been involved in different alternative energy technologies for at least a decade. On the HUG site there is a section that describes how the group became interested in LENR. Members of this group became aware of Rossi in January of 2011 and have been following the developments regarding the e-Cat ever since. Eventually, it became obvious that something very real and significant was happening and members of HUG decided to transition from watching on the sidelines to active participation.

“So, we started studying, built a safety lab to handle hydrogen and nano-powder safely, built a clean room (relative to the rest of the shop) and started gathering and building test equipment. The fun part is that the learning curve is so steep, we need mountain climbing gear. Our shop staff quickly evolved from a loose bunch of individuals into a focused team. We feel lucky. We also feel a sense of destiny that we happen to have the right team with the right tools at the right time.”

Furthermore, the Hunt Utilities Group embraces the collaborative, crowdsourcing model:

“HUG envisions a unique approach to collaboration in the LENR field that would ideally catalyze progress for the encumbered information sharing process. With open information sharing via crowdsourced blogging, ideas can be traded quickly without delay. Live data could be posted for review, criticisms, interpretation, and suggestions from peers and collaborators. At the expense of immediate intellectual property rights, the accelerating benefits could prove an invaluable asset leading to certified patents.”Source.

To help those attempting to replicate Celani, Earthtech.org of Austin, TX (home of NI), has set up a cold fusion device verification service. Per a recent comment on E-Cat World, the service works thusly:

“Harold Puthoff, the CEO, would pass the making of the Celani device to Scott Little, for lab replication and testing, if asked, and have the costs absorbed by the Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin.

Any cold fusion device that passes their testing would be immediately recognized world-wide as “officially” verified.”

In addition to the replication of Celani, replication attempts of the Athanor/Hydrobetatron cell of Ugo Abundo of the Pirelli High School in Rome have spread to North America. There is now a replication attempt of that cell being undertaken at the Gladstone Secondary School, in Vancouver, British Columbia. This is of course the same city where Defkalion Green Technologies is making its new home.

In a comment posted a couple of weeks ago on the Defkalion Forum, a user with the screen name “HappyRocker,” announced the school’s involvement in an Athanor replication attempt. A member of the faculty of that school posted a comment on the DGT Forum and requested a visit to the new Defkalion offices in Vancouver. Short of that, this commenter requested a visit by a Defkalion representative to the school to explain the basics and/or lend a hand with the calorimetry setup of their replication attempt. It should be noted, aside from any support from Defkalion with issues regarding calorimetry, the Vancouver school has enlisted the services of an expert in calorimetry from Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University to assist them with this important aspect of the experiment.

Since the original posting, more details have emerged about this work. The school has named their project the EC2, or EC squared (short for electro-chemistry electron capture). They have setup a project blog for students involved with the work, which can be viewed here. In the future they also plan to set up a fundraising effort through Kickerstarter.com, and they hope to sell coffee mugs, T-shirts and quite possibly even replication kits. Preliminary testing in regards to the EC2 project is to begin very shortly.

Gladstone Secondary School – Vancouver, BC

I think the promise of widespread, crowdsourced replications of some cold fusion cell were summarized recently by Jed Rothwell on Vortex-l. His comments were primarily in regards to the Celani cell but the same could be said of the Athanor, or any other potential cold fusion replication kit meant for a more general audience.

We can hope that the Celani device, replicated by 5 or 10 labs, will convince hundreds more researchers than we now have.

Many of them will replicate, triggering thousands more. Once you get up to a million people who believe it, money starts pouring in, and thousands get to work frantically developing the technology.

At that point it does not matter how many people still do not believe the technology is real.

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Benjamin Drose has a degree in political science and is a technical writer by trade. Ben started the blog e-Cat Site in the Fall of 2011 to cover the story of Andrea Rossi and subsequently joined Cold Fusion Now, bringing his interest in the business of LENR with him. Contact Ben

Tim’s obscene (and thus ialerevrnt) comment aside, LENR production will change the world. Simply by using Rossi’s Ecat or Defkalion’s similar model, common households will be able to reduce their energy costs for the most likely use of electricity, heating water. Think of the E-cat as replacing the hot water tank, and unlike a gas-powered or electrically-powered instant hot water heater, this device is making the reaction to heat the water. Most solar installed on a house is to first to heat water for washing dishes and showers. This is 40-80% of a typical household’s electricity/gas bill each month.For businesses, hot water is used less in washrooms, but once you turn LENR into electricity-making devices the value is huge. This is the reason the 1 MW E-cats are being sold and made. Each hospital around the world needs one as their emergency backup generator, and with additional Ecats, this can be their primary power system. LENR has the ability to decentralize the electrical power grid of many countries, just when the aging power grid needs to be updated and repaired. Cities and states can save money by decentralizing instead, and relieving their power grid of the ever-increasing peak loads.Outside of the house, this will not change the average person’s life because the Ecat is still too specialized for automobiles. Yes, it can help charge electrically-driven battery-type cars. But we are going to be using oil-derived products for a long, long time until we get solid-state free energy generators the size of the battery pack in electrical vehicles. The same goes for aircraft.The military importance of LENR is huge. This is the reason submarines and aircraft carriers have fission reaction piles (or reactors, to use the modern terminology). Build several LENR reactors to heat the water for the turbines, keep a few pounds of powered nickel onboard, and your ship is good for decades. Apply the same principle to yachts and other private craft, and people can stay at sea for years. Most military units run on diesel generators right now for their headquarters and operation centers in the field. LENR can change that.So the average homeowner has limitless hot water, with extremely low-cost electricity at their house, a large outdoor heated pool, an electrical car whose batteries are recharged each night at the house, with more money in the owner’s pocket as the LENR pays for itself in a few months. He can cool or heat the house without governmental oversight because he’s not on the city grid. He can leave the lights on 24/7 if he wishes. His electrical bill is nonexistent, because of his LENR units and a small battery bank for backup.LENR will be one of the ways to change the world if it can be delivered as promised.

I’m here to plug Tadahiko Mizuno’s book again (I’m not getting any kickbacks). Chapter 5 is “Experiments with Solid State Proton Conductors”. There are some discussions taking place on E-Catworld about Prof. Y. E. Kim’s Bose-Einstein Condensate Nuclear Fusion theory.
Using Mizuno type proton conductor experiments (where protons and deuterons are mobile) might be a good way to test Kim’s theory. Protons (and deuterons) that are fermions might pair more readily in these conductors to form the bosons Kim talks about.

I met Matthew at ICCF17. I was bowled over by his level of education, because he is so unassuming.
Ryan and Matthew, if you are reading this you have my respect.
You are at the fulcrum of History.
This is your moment.

I have no doubt what you say is true. I could go off on a rant but, instead, let me just say that often the most intelligent and adept in organization are looked over. ignored or their work marginalized because of institutional politics. This is true of corporations, academia, the military, etc. I think crowdsourcing initiatives give these people an opportunity to shine because it is about the work, not tertiary concerns. This is why I have hope that the grassroots approach will bring us real breakthroughs. I believe following this group of replicators will become the focus of this story in the coming months.

Excellent article!I’d add, LENR will reomve 600 million smog producing cars/ trucks from our planet within a decade. Yes you would drive a $100 month gas car into a lake for a car with almost free fuel. At least switch it over.Big cars will make a comeback. Sailboats will lose popularity over powerboats. Hydrogen/steam/electric are all viable with ecat as car fuel.Research in most other green technologies will die out. Who would want to buy a windmill now? Maybe the thousands of unemployed scientists can study LENR and/or build black market ecats.How would police fight black-market ecats? If you had 10 in your car you could tell the cops they are for different types of cold fusion research. There will be no ecat sniffing dogs either.Nations with little food/clean water can now desalinate cheaply and irrigate deserts until they can grow food.Ecats can not only make our planet smog free and stop many air quality ailments, but also save lives by food/water production.

Gorillas learn techniques by mirroring them. Just wait for LENR to manifest into useful industrial devices, then watch the gold rush. Looks like Rossi is selling his one mega watt LENR reactor publicly early next year, and Defkalion has credible third party verification of their LENR generator.

My first post was just a test to see if it would actually show up. Whoever densigs these websites where you can only see a few of the words at a time when you post a reply should be fired. OK No one wants to see free energy or LENR more than I, Sterling Allan can attest to that. But there has not been absolute proof of LENR yet. There will not be proof until a LENR inventor brings a disassembled E-Cat etc to an examining lab, Assembles it in front of several engineers in several specialties, Operates it with monitoring and equipment to detect hidden power sources like beamed microwaves or out of visual spectrum lasers etc and then the engineers are allowed to disassembled the device completely and then go through the whole process on their own with the inventor absent. Unless as some inventors claim that they are going to start selling small space heater versions but we all remain waiting to see that ? The secrecy of Mr. Rossi who claims to have an E-Cat factory here in MIami where I live goes to such extremes that he will not even let me see the automated robot E-Cat building factory, Do you actually believe there are robot assembly lines for anything less than General Motors ? Of course not, He will not show it because he does not have a Miami E-Cat factory. I have asked to see it, I have asked to work for him at it, Who does ? Only robots ? Then it just spreads, Now this South Africa over unity claimant, Does not even give it’s company name, it’s address, it’s CEO’s name the inventor’s name ? What kind of fools do they think we are ? Thomas L. Buyea, Miami, Fl.